


A Bad Case of LTP

by Khanofallorcs



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cat tendencies, Established Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/M, Post-Hawk Moth Defeat, Superhero Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khanofallorcs/pseuds/Khanofallorcs
Summary: In the spirit of "We were having fun, then more fun, then arguably too much fun, and then no fun at all".Marinette should know better than to simply listen to Plagg, but the little rascal has just the knack for making this harebrained idea seem simple, and besides, what's the worst that could happen?
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Plagg
Comments: 34
Kudos: 159
Collections: Miraculous Fanworks Anniversary 2020





	A Bad Case of LTP

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiaBrown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiaBrown/gifts).



> This story goes out to Mia Brown on the _Miraculous Fanworks_ Discord server. She asked for a story where Plagg convinces either Marinette or Adrien to "solve" a problem with his methods, and the other must do damage control. The premise seemed really good for a laugh, and I hope you find this the case.
> 
> I'd love to give special thanks to [River ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight) and [MiniNoire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNoire/pseuds/MiniNoire) for beta reading this fic, helping me smooth out the parts that didn't quite work as well as I had originally thought.

“You’re sure this is going to work, right?” Marinette asked.

“Pigtails, you worry too much. Which one of us is the aspect of Destruction, again?”

“You are”, she grudgingly admitted. “That’s kind of the problem, you know.”

She turned away for a moment to look at her nearly empty tea cup, while the kwami flew up in her face to glare at her.

“Look, minor accidents happen, okay? And the more we practice, the more we’ll be able to avoid them. As the Guardian, you’re meant to understand the intricacies of each Miraculous. Besides,” he added, “keeping all my destructive power unspent could have disastrous consequences.”

“Mhm. Tikki AND Adrien told me that’s what you say when you get bored.”

“If you _really_ didn’t want to try, you’d have stopped me by now.”

She took a long, slow sip of what little was left of her catnip tea, and started putting a kettle to boil so the next batch would be done soon. Originally it had been her way of teasing Adrien, seeing if he’d react to it in any way. She had been disappointed that he’d shrugged off its effects, even when transformed. Apparently only one in two cats actually showed the reaction that made the plant infamous. On the bright side, she had found that it calmed her nerves, and had become a personal favorite of hers (Adrien turned up his nose at it; his loss, and more for her, then).

“You know you can’t dodge the truth by pretending to not hear it,” the kwami drawled in his nasal voice.

“Fine!” she barked, throwing her hands up. “Yes, I am interested. And you’re sure that if I transform, the Cataclysm will have enough precision to get this stain out and leave the fabric clean?”

“For the fifth time, yes! It’s a very versatile tool; it does a lot more than just make things go _poof_ , you know? For instance, it can age things up, and help along decay.”

“I still can’t believe you’re asking me to do it to age your stinky cheese ‘to perfection’.”

“Hey, I learned the first time that when _I_ do it, it tends to spill over!”

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

Her day off had started so nicely, too. She slept in, and when she woke up she found that Adrien had left her a lovely note, and breakfast. She checked her phone only to find that it was drowning in messages from him, all of which were some variation of heart emoji (or some awful pun). She rolled her eyes fondly, and sent him a message of her own.

For the first time in who knows how long, she had the chance to treat herself to a proper _bath_. She felt like a whole new person after that.

That lasted for all of 20 minutes when she started cleaning her workspace and wardrobe (she had promised Adrien she’d take it easy today). While looking over to make sure she had something to wear for the gala she and Adrien were attending next week, she tripped over a pencil she hadn’t seen, spilling the remains of her days old coffee, staining the white fabric brownish-black where it landed.

Plagg had been the one to react to her distressed screams, since Adrien was treating Tikki with a trip to one of her favorite patisseries when he was done with work (everyone knew that _Tom and Sabine’s_ was the best bakery in Paris, but the kwami of Creation enjoyed variety every now and then). And that was how the tiny cat kwami proposed his _ridiculous_ scheme.

Marinette couldn’t believe that she was contemplating doing this; but it _was_ very rare and expensive fabric (that wasn’t the problem _really_ ; it was the dress she’d worn on her first date with Adrien, and she suspected the little gremlin _knew_ that). She sighed, wishing there was someone who’d talk her out of it. Still it’d been a long time since she last put on the ring to become Lady Noire, and there was some merit in figuring out all they could do in case they ever needed it.

After all, it should be safe to practice now, since the Miraculous officially considered them adults, and Hawk Moth had been dealt with a few years ago. 

_‘Here goes nothing’_ , she thought.

Plagg must have read determination in her expression, because a wide smirk broke out on his face. 

“Just say the words! And don’t forget about my-”

“Camembert, yes. Alright… Plagg, claws out!”

Marinette caught Plagg’s smirk as he was sucked into the ring, and the black suit radiated out from it. It felt different on her skin than her Ladybug spandex. For a moment Lady Noire went to inspect the texture of the material, noting the familiar hexagon pattern, and the way it felt under her clawed fingers (she noted how smoothly they glided along it, without leaving a single tear in the material). She was tempted to jot down some ideas for later inspiration, but figured it’d be best not to get side-tracked.

She picked up the stained dress, wincing at how her enhanced senses allowed her to see smaller stains that she’d previously missed. For a moment she wondered if going along with what Plagg said was really a good idea. Then she reassured herself that in the worst case, she’d maybe be able to convince Tikki to bail them out (and if she was really lucky, without telling Adrien about it).

So she very slowly moved the tip of her index finger until it just hovered above the center of the largest stain. She bit her lip one last time (nearly yelping as she forgot how much sharper her fangs were now), took a deep breath and focused all her thoughts on the stain. Then she whispered “Cataclysm” as the finger gently grazed the blackened surface of the dress.

With one eye closed, she saw the dried coffee stain fleck away as the Cataclysm radiated outward. She watched with bated breath as a few moments later, all the traces of the stains had completely disappeared (although her keen senses smelled the slightest trace of ozone she associated with her partner’s Cataclysm). 

Lady Noire turned the dress over in awe, noting just how much _cleaner_ it looked now, as though someone had removed all the dust and grime, leaving only the original material behind. She whistled, _turns out Plagg does know what he’s talking about_.

She was very careful not to ruin all the effort by accidentally tearing it with her new claws, and safely stashed it in her wardrobe. Then she made her way over to the fridge in the kitchen; after all, she had to keep up her end of the bargain. 

When she and Adrien first moved in together, she hadn’t quite understood just how pungent the unexpectedly vast amounts of cheese the little kwami consumed truly were. All of them (including, to her surprise, Plagg) agreed to cordon off a section of the fridge where the cheese could go live and die. Marinette knew from experience now that simply opening the door to that forbidden dimension was a surefire way to test the strength of her stomach. But she wasn’t banking just how much _worse_ it would be to feel the putrid stench of his cheese with her enhanced senses as Lady Noire. _So that’s why Adrien hates the stuff so badly_ , she thought, using one hand to hold her nostrils closed.

With the other, she grabbed the foul thing out of her fridge and left it on the table, trying very hard to ignore just how wet it felt, even through her gloves. _I could really use some tea right now_ , she thought, before taking a glance to see that the kettle still had some ways to go before reaching full boil. She took a deep breath through her mouth, and steeled herself.

She gingerly pulled back the protective plastic layer, peeling it away with her claw. Plagg had told her that the secret was to really dip her finger on the inside of the cheese, otherwise the Cataclysm might just burn away the rind that he loved so much. Lady Noire sighed as the tip of her claw easily sank into the soft center of the Camembert. She focused on the process of decay that she wanted to have happen inside the cheese, before whispering “Cataclysm”. She almost cracked up when she heard the way it sounded with her nose covered.

She felt the cheese change before she saw it, turning even more liquid and gross to her touch, as splotches of white began spreading both on its rind and inside what she could see of its center. She hastily withdrew her finger before opening the fridge and slamming the vile thing into its furthest reaches, where hopefully no one would know what she’d done. 

She tried to take a deep breath in relief, before she was hit by the burn left by the lingering stench of the overaged cheese. She wondered if it was her affinity towards decay as Lady Noire, but she could not ignore its presence in the room. Mercifully, that is when the kettle started whistling that it was finished.

Without waiting another second she charged into a corner of the room less defiled by the stench, turned off the heat and poured the hot water into her favorite mug. She rifled through the drawers to find the catnip tea bag, and just as she pulled it out she heard a ripping sound.

It took her a moment to identify that she had caused it in her rush to retrieve the tea bag with her sharp new claws. When she lifted it up to investigate, she was hit by simply the most _delightful and energizing_ smell she had ever felt in her life. 

* * *

  
  


Adrien had had a long day: his meeting ran over, his team was berated by their boss for something not their fault, and the queue at the pastry shop had been loooooong. Tikki reassured him that she was fine without, but catching her sneaking longing glances at the macarons on display was enough to let him know he didn’t have the heart to deny her. After all, she put up with three whole crazies at home!

The first thing that surprised him as he got home was not seeing the lights on. Had Marinette sent him a message that she’d be out? He flipped through his phone but couldn’t find one. Maybe she was making the most of her day off and taking a nap? Shrugging, he opened the door to investigate, trying to quell the dread gathering in the pit of his stomach.

Suddenly, he heard a scratching coming from the depths of the pitch dark hallway, and he had half of a second to register a yowl before a black blur tackled him to the ground. Adrien tried to reach for the pocket where he kept Tikki’s earrings, cursing himself for not being prepared in case of a sudden ambush, when he felt the figure on top of him nuzzle him. He froze before he heard a rumbling purr emanate from it.

It took Adrien a good few seconds to realise that it was Lady Noire happily rubbing against him, more vigorously than Marinette had ever done before. He looked at her in confusion, until she turned her face towards him. Her normally slitted pupils were blown out, forming two big black circles as she blinked slowly at him, once, then a second time. She pushed her lip out to pout.

“Imissedyouyouvebeengonealldaywontyoukissme-”

“Princess, please, let me get up. And try that again a bit slower?”

She hissed at him, her hair (including her long braid) standing on end.

“No! Kiss first!”

And before he could articulate a response she dove into him, pressing her lips to his. He almost gave in to the familiar sensation before he felt a strange scent coming from her, then drew back with a yelp as one of her sharp fangs nipped him.

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to!” she said, ears drooping and seeming on the edge of tears. “Please forgive me.”

“Princess, it’s fine, I’m not mad- “ he began before she tackled him to affectionately rub against him. Just what had happened to her?

A scenario like this had featured in his dreams decidedly more than once, but not with him so out of the loop. He knew that he had no chance of pushing Lady Noire off of him, so he tried to pacify her by rubbing between her (cat) ears, and was rewarded by a very loud purr as she melted into him.

That gave him the time he needed to get up, despite her protests when his hand left her head.

“I missed you too, but how about we go inside and you can tell me just what happened?”

“‘Kay,” she said before scurrying away on all fours, leaving him alone in the entryway with the somewhat smooshed pastry bags he had picked up earlier. 

“Tikki!” he whispered, distressed, and the kwami floated up to his face. Concern was written clearly in her bright blue eyes, but he could make out something darker in her gaze. “What the heck was that?! Did you catch the smell on her? I can swear I have felt it before but I have no idea what it is.”

“Adrien, that smell… it’s catnip.”

His eyes widened into saucers.

“Where did she- her tea! But why was she transformed?”

“I don’t know,” Tikki replied, wilting a bit, before narrowing her eyes. “But this seems like an ‘LTP’ situation.”

Adrien looked at her confused. “LT- what now?”

Tikki looked sheepish for a moment. “I forget you’ve only been on the other side of this. It’s ‘Listened To Plagg’. After a while you learn to read the signs for it.” 

Adrien briefly felt offended on his kwami’s behalf, before he winced remembering just how many hare-brained schemes had started with him naively doing what Plagg had suggested. He sighed as he heard a frustrated caterwaul sounding from deeper in their house. “Put on the earrings,” Tikki advised him before vanishing back into his pocket. He picked up what remained of the pastry to take into the kitchen.

He had only just closed the door behind him when Lady Noire came to him, hissing her displeasure at being kept waiting. He put his hands up to placate her. 

“Sorry, my Lady. Just had to check out something.”

She pointedly looked away, with her back entirely to him. _Am I like this?_ He wondered. 

After a moment he reached out to pet her head (her ears turned as he made his approach, but otherwise she gave no reaction). The moment he dug his fingers through her scalp, her tension softened and she resumed purring again. After a few minutes of letting him do it, she batted his hands away to jump up and wrap her arms around his neck, and it was only his years of reflexes that caught her before she unbalanced them both.

“Princess, it’s too dark here to see.”

“No, it’s not.”

“You know you don’t accept me telling you that when _I’m_ transformed.”

“Fiiiine,” she drawled, but made no movement to let him go.

He sighed, before nudging Tikki, and trying to point in the direction of the light switch. Mercifully, she understood and managed to fly over and turn it on. Immediately, Lady Noire turned to hiss as though struck. He ran a soothing hand through her hair, and that seemed to calm her down.

That was when he saw the deep scratch marks left on every surface of the floor and walls (and somehow even a few on the ceiling; could she even reach that high?!). His grip on her tightened.

“Mari,” he said in a clipped tone, “what did you do?”

In response she turned to look at him, giving him the biggest kitty eyes he had ever seen, and sticking her lip out. He would have been absolutely overcome by that look… if he hadn’t been overcome by the smell of catnip from her mouth now that she was in his personal space. He never knew how much he hated it until that moment.

“Okay, fine, you didn’t do anything,” he hedged. “But why are you transformed?”

“We had bad stuff in the house.”

“...What?”

“Bad stuff!” She repeated, with feeling, before poking him in the chest for emphasis (her claws were a lot sharper than she seemed to realize). “Stains, and grime, you know, in that one spot we couldn’t get out of the frying pan. But we need a new one anyway, thing just broke down when I grabbed it too hard.” Adrien stifled a wince: that frying pan had been a gift from her parents. “And moths, so many moths. And all of Plagg’s smelly cheese from the fridge. And most of those awful technicolor pun shirts and ties in your closet.”

“Marinette, what happened to all of that?” he asked, increasingly worried. 

“Gone,” she announced, satisfied. " _Poooof!_ Don’t need to worry about it ever again.”

Adrien dropped the pastries he had been holding, letting them splatter on the ground.

“Adrien! See what you did? Now I have to get rid of this, too! Cataclysm-”

“No, wait!”, he shouted, as he tried futilely to hold back her hand, now awash with the bitter power of Destruction. 

His attempt to stop her from reaching the pastries was enough to make her miss, and suddenly cracks started to form on the tiles of the floor.

“Oops!” Lady Noire declared as the ground began to give way in the room.

* * *

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Nadja Chamack here on TVi, reporting on the aftermath of a bizarre episode that took place here in Paris, late in the evening. At around 8, neighbours observed a rapidly expanding sinkhole appearing from beneath the house of famous couple Marinette and Adrien Dupain-Cheng. Within minutes, the whole house had seemingly been swallowed in the disaster, which seemed to show no signs of stopping as the fence separating nearby properties could attest.

More surprising, however, was the swift arrival of Chat Noir, wielding the Ladybug Miraculous. Mister Bug, as he introduced himself, was seen exiting shortly thereafter, with an unidentified figure tied up in his yo-yo and thrashing about. 

A few minutes later, the ladybugs so beloved by Paris made a clean sweep through the neighbourhood, Miraculously returning everything to its rightful state. As you all know, dear viewers, for the last few years, Ladybug and her partner have not needed to fear detransforming after using their powers, and he was gracious enough to give the following short statement:”

_“Hello, fellow Parisians! You might have caught news of the sudden_ **_cat_ ** _astrophe that befell this area. Well, I and my partner, who, unfortunately, couldn’t be present for this have been able to identify and fix the underlying problem: a rogue Miraculous user that not even Ladybug, with her foresight, had anticipated. Still, we are monitoring the situation closely, and are going to make sure there should be no more such episodes involving the Dupain-Cheng couple. Oh, and one last thing: if there are any kids watching, please don’t do something stupid just because your friend convinced you to.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This was a joy to write, but it wouldn't have been possible without the support of the lovely folks from the _Miraculous Fanworks_ Discord; they organized this whole exchange, and the writing sprints we did together really kept me focused on the task. If you feel like you'd like to take part in exchanges like these, gush about Miraculous Ladybug fanfic, or just to find a welcoming community which can help with anything from beta reading to giving baking advice, feel free to join us [here](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks).


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